kaleidoscope cane - Keepsake Crafts

WOYWW – Polymer Clay Kaleidoscope Cane

Mar 182014

Happy Wednesday again! Spring’s official arrival is in just a few days. Yaaaaay. But here in New England it won’t appear in reality for another month or so. Booooo.

As a result, you can see the spring fever on my desk today, with all the bright and happy colors.

Click on any of the photos for a closer look.

It’s day 12 of my personal Make It In March challenge, where I’ve promised to not only make something creative every weekday in March, but to blog about it as well.

Last week I shared a kaleidoscope cane tutorial on Polymer Clay Central. Today I decided to try it for myself.

The plan was to make another square kaleidoscope cane and cover another lizard, but this design absolutely insisted on being hexagonal. I argued with it fiercely, reminding it how I dislike dealing with the 60° angles, but to no avail.

It’s pretty, but I have no idea what I’m going to do with it. Any suggestions?

Making canes is fun, it’s kinda magical to slice into one and see the results, but I think I prefer sculptural work. I’ll definitely never be one of those super-precise cane makers.

Wondering why I’ve shared a photo of my messy workdesk? That’s because it’s What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday. Come and join us in our weekly snoop into the desks of creative people around the world. It’s fun and often quite inspirational.

Happy creating!

Kaleidoscope Cane Lizard In Polymer Clay – Make It In March Day 11

Mar 172014

Click on any of the photos for a closer look.

Ok, I am in love with this kaleidoscope cane and think I must do one in every possible color. (The sparkly specks are glitter, as I ran out of plain white and had to use some glitter white. Time to go buy more clay!)

I followed the visual tutorial on Almu Mendelbaum’s Flickr stream to make this glowing star-like cane. (Click to the left on her stream to get the rest of the steps.)

I decided to make another canework lizard, this time following the steps a bit more carefully, and with much better results. 🙂

I don’t think I’ll be giving Jon Anderson a run for his money any time soon! (I felt privileged to get to see and even handle some of his work at the El Paso airport last summer, and it’s even more amazing in real life than in the photos.)

Hubby thinks I should make all my dragons this way, covered in cane slices. Which do you prefer, the visual texture of the canes, or actual texture?

Check back tomorrow for the next Make it in March project.

Happy creating!

Polymer Clay Canework Lizard – Make It In March Day 9

Mar 132014

Today’s project was a fun one, I made this little lizard guy. If you’d like to know how to make your own, I found the guidelines (not a complete tutorial) at the Polymer Clay Workshop website.

He’s covered with slices from a cane I made a while back from a kaleidoscope cane article in the Fall 2004 issue of Polymer Cafe. (That issue is sold out, but here’s a kaleidoscope cane tutorial on Polymer Clay Central.)

It took just as much time to get the toes right as it did to do everything else. I can’t tell you how helpful it was to have my magnifying lamp to do those tiny details. (We’ve used that light SO much in our household: to remove splinters, to read teeny tiny writing on bottles, for itty bitty repairs, it’s awesome.)

Here he is, slithering across my keyboard, just to give you an idea of the size. He’s about 3 1/2 inches long. This is definitely a technique I want to revisit, but with a cane made for the project.

Check back tomorrow to see the end of week 2 of my Make It In March Challenge.

Happy creating!